How Morning Star Weapons were used in Battle

An essential weapon of medieval warfare, the morning star is often overlooked in favour of more famous medieval weapons such as the spear, sword, and lance.

Medieval Knight Close Combat weapons

A selection of knights ground fighting weapons including a mace and morning star

But don’t be fooled by this simple-looking club was an exceptionally effective weapon, especially on the field of battle, where it was used to kill both men and horses with relative ease. If you want to know how morning stars were used in battle, keep reading…

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History of the Morning Star

The Morning Star was a medieval club like weapon that was often decorated with spikes. It is said the spiked morning star had a history stretching back to the ancient Greek, Roman, and Germanic worlds, but it’s most well known from the Middle Ages.

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There are two different types of Morning Star weapons. One is small in size, weighing only around 2 pounds, while the other is larger with a weight of up to 10 pounds. They both consisted of a long shaft which had an attached metal ball adorned with one or more spikes.

Often they would be seen as a mace-like weapon or flail due to their ability to have a blunt force or puncture attack depending on what type you used. Unlike medieval weapons such as swords, Morning Stars required little training in order to master and use them effectively on the battlefield.

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Morning Star Weapons

Morning Star Weapons were also known as Morgenstern weapons ( German Name are a type of medieval weapon, club-like in nature, that had a spike on the top.

The morning star can also be referred to as a morningstar or mace. There is no set form for this medieval weapon but most are constructed of wood (usually ash) and metal at some point during their history, though there may not have been much metal added during the construction process originally.

One example of this is an iron shaft with an attached ball adorned with one or more spikes, typically bronze but sometimes copper.

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Grass Morning Star Seeds

Types of Morning Stars

A Morning Star is a medieval club like weapon with an attached spiked ball. It was both blunt and puncture, so it could be used for different types of battle. Morning Stars ranged from one to six spikes, but the most common was four.

They ranged from being light enough to use as a hand weapon, to heavy enough to use on horseback, making them versatile. Different versions had different lengths of shafts, though they all had weighted balls at the end.

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Construction of Morning Stars

Morning Stars are medieval weapons that could be used for both blunt and puncture attacks. They are essentially clubs on the end of a chain or rope, with spikes at the opposite end. It can also be referred to as a Morgenstern, which translates to morning star.

German Horse Armour

Close up of German horse Armour the Chamfron is horse face armour

Advantages and Disadvantages of Morning Stars

The spiked ball could inflict deep wounds and could also break bones. Disadvantages of Morning Stars It was heavy, weighing up to 12 pounds for some models. This means that it is not an easy weapon to carry around on a battlefield.